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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Logan, Utah » Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #356022
Title: Checklist of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) from small diversified vegetable farms in southwestern Montana

Author
item DELPHIA, CASEY - Montana State University
item Griswold, Terry
item REESE, ELIZABETH - Montana State University
item ONEILL, KEVIN - Montana State University
item BURKLE, LAURA - Montana State University

Submitted to: Biodiversity Data Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/21/2018
Publication Date: 1/28/2019
Citation: Delphia, C.M., Griswold, T.L., Reese, E.G., O'Neill, K., Burkle, L.A. 2019. Checklist of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) from small diversified vegetable farms in southwestern Montana. Biodiversity Data Journal. 7:e300625. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e30062.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e30062

Interpretive Summary: Native, non-managed bees have the potential to provide necessary pollination for a diversity of crops. A three-year study of native bees in vegetable farms found a rich array of native bees in vegetable farms in Gallatin County, Montana. A total of 203 species were present on these farms. What is surprising is that 25 species were not previously known from Montana including a sweat bee (Lasioglossum clematisellum) previously known only from New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Utah, and an eastern species of long-horned bee (Melissodes niveus) that had not been found west of Kansas.

Technical Abstract: Over three years (2013-2015), we sampled bees using nets and bowl traps on four diversified vegetable farms in Gallatin County, Montana, USA, as part of a study evaluating the use of wildflower strips for supporting wild bees and crop pollination services on farmlands (Delphia et al. in review). We document 203 species and morphospecies from 32 genera within five families, of which 25 species represent the first published state records for Montana. This study increases our overall understanding of the distribution of wild bee species associated with agroecosystems of the northern US Rockies, which is important for efforts aimed at conserving bee biodiversity and supporting sustainable crop pollination systems on farmlands. We provide a species list of wild bees associated with diversified farmlands in Montana and increase the number of published bee species records in the state from 374 to at least 399. The list includes new distributional records for 25 wild bee species, including two species that represent considerable expansions of their known ranges, Lasioglossum (Dialictus) clematisellum (Cockerell 1904) with previous published records from New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Utah, and Melissodes (Eumelissodes) niveus Robertson 1895 which was reported to range from New York to Minnesota and Kansas, south to North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.